How to Use ruminant in a Sentence

ruminant

1 of 2 noun
  • The object of his love and lust is a ruminant.
    — Theater Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 Mar. 2026
  • Like other ruminants, deer have no upper front teeth.
    — Jeff Wilson, Outdoor Life, 11 Mar. 2026
  • At the same time, though, the cows and sheep are peaceful ruminants, while the frogs and the duck are predators.
    — New York Times, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The third vessel likely held a mixture of both ruminant and pig or human milk.
    — Jillian Mock, Discover Magazine, 25 Sep. 2019
  • Some locals have doubts about bringing back the giant ruminants.
    — The Economist, 22 Aug. 2019
  • The bacteria live in the intestines of cows, pigs and other ruminants.
    — The Washington Post, OregonLive.com, 20 Apr. 2018
  • Cattle, deer, sheep, camels and giraffes, among others, are all ruminant mammals.
    — Theresa MacHemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Feb. 2020
  • The ruminant meat can carry disease-causing sickness and has been linked to outbreaks.
    — Bradford Betz, Fox News, 13 Jan. 2022
  • Peste des petits ruminants struck a lamb-fattening unit in Israel.
    — Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's magazine, 10 Apr. 2019
  • Senatorial milk may be derived from all ruminants, not just cows.
    — Nehemiah Markos, The New Yorker, 31 Jan. 2020
  • The agency said that another passenger from Liberia tried to sneak in ruminant meat.
    — Jeramie Bizzle, CBS News, 22 Apr. 2026
  • Cows and other ruminants such as goats and sheep have a special stomach called a rumen that houses millions of microbes.
    — Elizabeth Pennisi, Science | AAAS, 3 July 2019
  • High-methane foods means meat—specifically, meat from ruminants.
    — Heather Souvaine Horn, The New Republic, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Take bluetongue virus, a highly lethal ruminant disease that is spread by biting midges called Culicoides.
    — Lois Parshley, Scientific American, 1 May 2018
  • The project is looking into microbes that inhabit the stomachs of ruminants such as cattle and sheep.
    — The Economist, 2 Nov. 2019
  • To support themselves in the off-season, many chile pickers tend the ruminants, selling them for meat and selling their milk and manure.
    — Kamala Thiagarajan, NPR, 19 Apr. 2026
  • The proportions of carbon-13 in the fatty acids suggested that the milk had come from ruminants, such as cows, sheep, or goats.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 2 Oct. 2019
  • Some people eat only meat, some eat ruminant meat only, while others incorporate meat, eggs and fish.
    — Teresa Mull, FOXNews.com, 1 June 2026
  • Bluetongue virus, a ruminant virus spread by midges that was once confined to tropical areas, has reached as far as Norway.
    — Mariette Dichristina, Scientific American, 1 May 2018
  • Historically, the source of rennet was from the stomachs of ruminant mammals, such as cows.
    — Scott Lafee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Apr. 2022
  • Cows and other ruminant animals excrete some urea into their saliva.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 11 Oct. 2012
  • That starts with eating fewer cows and other ruminants—the fewer fermenting stomachs out there, the better.
    — WIRED, 6 Mar. 2023
  • Their four chamber stomachs, which categorize them as a ruminant, like cattle, enable them to digest the roughage.
    — Camille Sauers, Chron, 30 Sep. 2021
  • As Beano or ginger are to the human digestive system, an enzyme found in seaweed or lemongrass is to that of the ruminant.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 14 July 2020
  • But it can also be released from ruminant livestock, wetlands and waste decomposing in landfills.
    — Jasmin Malik Chua, Sourcing Journal, 19 Sep. 2025
  • One woman spoke about the theory that feeding seaweed to ruminants could help cut down on excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
    — John Kelly, Washington Post, 9 Dec. 2019
  • The products from ruminant animals – sheep, cows and other animals with four stomachs – tend to have greater greenhouse gas emissions.
    — Quora, Forbes, 15 June 2022
  • If the ruminants move like wild buffalo, in dense herds, never staying in one place for too long, the land benefits from the momentary disturbance.
    — Moises Velasquez-Manoff, New York Times, 18 Apr. 2018
  • And sheep, like other ruminants including cattle, produce methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, in their burps.
    — Tatiana Schlossberg, New York Times, 24 May 2017
  • The bed of excrement also contained unusual levels of bile acids and fatty compounds found in the digestive tracts of horses and ruminants.
    — Smithsonian, 29 July 2017

ruminant

2 of 2 adjective
  • I wandered around campus all day in a ruminant mood.
  • The grain, straw, and chaff of fonio are used as fodder for ruminant animals.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Mar. 2026
  • Tripe is a meat that comes from the stomach lining of beef, hog, sheep, and other ruminant animals.
    — Lauren O'Connor, Ms, Health, 29 Sep. 2024
  • Some trans fats occur naturally in dairy foods and meat from ruminant animals.
    — Melissa Healy, latimes.com, 15 May 2018
  • Researchers are searching for ways to shift the mix of microbes in ruminant guts to minimize methane emissions.
    — Bob Holmes, Discover Magazine, 29 June 2024
  • The global demand for ruminant meat, meaning beef, sheep and goat, is expected to be even higher, at 88%.
    — Jen Christensen, CNN, 17 July 2019
  • Several animal products from ruminant animals like cows and sheep contain trans fat.
    — Amanda MacMillan, Health, 27 June 2023
  • The results of the chemical analysis show that the bottles contained dairy fat from the milk of ruminant animals, a group that includes cows, goats, and sheep.
    — Megan Gannon, National Geographic, 25 Sep. 2019
  • As ruminant animals, dairy cows eat foods that humans can’t digest, like hay, millrun (a byproduct of wheat production), cotton seed meal, and beet pulp.
    — The Salt Lake Tribune, 18 Apr. 2023
  • Thus began Yang’s ten-year diversion into the world of ruminant biology.
    — Megan Molteni, WIRED, 20 June 2019
  • From ruminant stomachs to feet that don’t get cold, these adaptations have allowed some of North America’s most iconic game species to survive the winter.
    — Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 6 Mar. 2023
  • Some of the highest-emission foods come from cows and other ruminant animals, which roam across acres of land emitting methane, a potent greenhouse gas, during their unique digestion process.
    — Byzahra Hirji, Fortune, 28 Nov. 2024
  • Beef and other ruminant meats like lamb produce much higher greenhouse gas emissions than other proteins like beans and nuts, and these emissions are major contributors to climate change.
    — Jenny Splitter / Photography Kelsey McClellan, Popular Mechanics, 20 Dec. 2019
  • Ivanovich’s modeling shows that by 2030, ruminant meat alone could be responsible for a third of the warming associated with food consumption.
    — WIRED, 6 Mar. 2023
  • Some have argued for the ostensible ecological benefits of raising beef and lamb on grassland, where gains in soil health from fertilization could offset the carbon emissions produced by ruminant livestock.
    — Eve Andrews, The Atlantic, 21 Dec. 2023
  • First, there is biological methane, which comes from agriculture - particularly the belches of ruminant animals, such as cows, and from rice fields - but also from wetlands, landfills, termites and more.
    — Chris Mooney, Anchorage Daily News, 19 Feb. 2020
  • Since 1961 methane emissions from ruminant livestock, which include cows as well as sheep, buffalo and goats, have significantly increased, according to the report.
    — Christopher Flavelle, New York Times, 8 Aug. 2019
  • Since 1961, methane emissions from ruminant livestock, which include cows as well as sheep, buffalo, and goats, have significantly increased, according to the report.
    — Christopher Flavelle, BostonGlobe.com, 8 Aug. 2019
  • Whether they’re raised organic or conventional, ruminant grazing requires a lot of land and water — the latter increasingly scarce in the parched American West — and produces significant greenhouse gas emissions.
    — Marina Bolotnikova, Vox, 10 Oct. 2024
  • In addition to the new building, the funding would be used to upgrade UMES' vet facilities, especially the farm that features small ruminant animals including sheep, goats, and a chicken coop.
    — Terry Collins, USA TODAY, 26 Feb. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ruminant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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